Cops Coerce Confession From Thai Pickpocket

A 37-year-old woman admitted stealing three cellphones from people at the Central Festival shopping center. She gave two phones to accomplices and pawned the other. The security guard recognized her from a previous arrest and detained her. She then confessed during the police interrogation.

PATTAYA – March 24, 2013 [Pattaya Daily News]: at 9 p.m., a report of a pickpocket being detained by a store security guard was received by Pol. Lt. Col. Weerawut Meelai, detective officer of Pattaya police station. The crime was reported from a security guard of Central Festival Pattaya Beach department store.

He had caught a female member of pickpocketing gang operating in the department store. The police went to the scene and arrested the suspect, identified as Ms. Weena Deesoi, 37 years old, from Jarernmeuang, Pan, Chiang Rai.

The security guard informed police that at 4 p.m., there was a gang of pickpockets mixing with shoppers in the department store. They had pickpocketed a Thai and a foreigner in B2S on the third floor. The thieves had stolen a HTC phone, worth around 12,000 baht; and an iPhone 5. The two victims had already notified Pol. Lt. Col. Weerayuth.

The security guard thought that the people who did this must be the same gang that had done it here before. After checking the CCTV, the security staff identified a trio of pickpockets, consisting of two females and one male. The guard also recognized the face of one of the females as Ms. Weena, because she had been arrested on June 15, 2010, for pickpocketing at the shopping complex.

The security guard kept an eye on the department store, until he spotted Ms. Weena walking in the department store. He caught her while she was trying to leave the Central Festival area by getting on a pickup minibus in the front of the shopping complex on second Pattaya road.

The security guard asked to search her, but did not find any stolen property. Ms. Weena tried to looked sad, and she half-confessed yet half-denied any wrongdoing. So the guard called Pol. Lt. Col. Weerawut to arrest her to prosecute.
During interrogation by police, Ms. Weena continued trying to look sad, and lied that she did not commit any crimes. But when she got pressed on and on by officers, she finally confessed in tears that she did it.

She had come to the shopping complex with her boyfriend, “Boy,” and his friend. Ms. Weena and Boy had been together for only 3 months. The trio of thieves mixed in with customers. They walked near potential victims who used shoulder bags. They always aimed for wallets, purses and mobile phones

Ms. Weena had earlier stolen an iPhone 4s, which she pawned at Meedee pawnshop in central Pattaya for 7,500 baht.

On the day she was caught by the alert security guard, she had stolen the HTC and the iPhone 5. But she gave the two stolen phones to her boyfriend and his friend. However, as she was walking to find another victim, she got caught by the guard.

The police informed the 3 victims they had arrested the thief. Two victims were identified as Ms. Narrerat Atchariya-angkoon, the owner of the iPhone 5; and Ms. Waraporn Kaowan the owner of iPhone 4s. The third victim was a Russian who owned the HTC phone. They were called to identify the suspect.

Ms. Waraporn said she had been selling food in the department store, and she had left her iPhone at the counter to charge it. But Ms. Weena took the opportunity while she was talking to her customer to steal it.

So Ms. Waraporn informed the security guard of the theft and notified the police. However, she later recovered her stolen phone, because the thief had pawned it to her relative’s pawn shop, so she eventually got it back.

The police will continue to interrogate Ms. Weena, to expand the case to find her boyfriend and the other friend who escaped with the stolen phones.

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